What do Aggies need for national title? Sumlin’s list

COLLEGE STATION – Sometimes as beat writers we’re guilty of prying too much into the minutiae of a team, and don’t ask often enough about the overall “big picture” of the program. Fans will often cut to the chase on that front when afforded the opportunity with a coach, as one did with Texas A&M’s Kevin Sumlin on Tuesday night.

Sumlin, believe it or not, is still in the early stages of building a solid foundation at A&M, despite the Aggies’ surprising early success with an 11-2 finish last year (and a 7-2 start to this season). He was asked what his program needs to do to “truly compete for a national title” by an intrigued soul during his radio show from Wings & More, which is hosted by “Voice of the Aggies” Dave South.

Sumlin’s insightful answer, edited just a bit for brevity:

“We need a lot of pieces. You look back at last year … and in the history of A&M there have only been four teams to ever win 11 games. Last year’s team was one of the best to ever play here.

“We signed 32 players, and we have 85 scholarships. Over one third of our football team is brand new right now. (We’re) at the point where one third of the football team had not played here before at all (prior to this season). Somebody asked me a week ago why we were playing all of these (new) guys. We wouldn’t be playing them if we had someone else!

“We’ve got to develop some depth and chemistry across the board. We’ve got really good depth at running back. We’ve got decent depth at receiver, not great. We don’t have the depth that we need on defense. Fortunately we signed three of the top five defensive linemen in the state a year ago and (continue recruiting) … It’s different than in the NFL. I can’t call Bob Stoops and trade guys – it just doesn’t work that way.

“We’ve got to recruit guys who can play at a high level, and we also have to develop guys. From that standpoint you have to have the right things fall into place.”

(Here Sumlin gets to what I believe is the heart of the matter for this program right now):

“Our talent level has got to increase. We need to increase the profile of our team – the height and size of our football team. So that it looks like the top tier in this conference. Because right now we look like it in places, but not across the board.

“We don’t look like … LSU or Alabama or when we see Georgia, or when we look at video of these guys (Mississippi State) coming in this week. (Those programs) have multiple top-three-round picks on defense in their front, at linebacker and in the secondary.

“We’ve got to be able to continue to recruit at a high level and build depth across the board, in order to be that strong to roll through this conference undefeated.”